Born in the Wrong Era

by Katey Schultz

Henry’s mother chopped the lemons for him, of course. Chopping lemons was
not for five-year-olds. But when it came time to crack the cubes in the ice tray,
Henry insisted on soloing through it.

Laura reached into the freezer, then handed her son the ice. “So, you grip
the sides like this—”

“Mother,” Henry said in all seriousness, “you have to let me do
it.”

He’d been like this since those first words rolled off his tongue as a toddler
(no, cat); addressing his parents as though speaking from some distant,
high society.

“Please,” Laura added. “Please let me do
it.”

“Mother,” Henry sighed. “You have to. Please.” Even his
boyish voice managed to conjure a Charlestonian air, as though his bloodline tied
him to America’s first settlers or the slave runners of its fetid past. Laura
knew it didn’t, of course. She and her husband were about as melting pot as
you can get, which made Henry something akin to overcooked.

Laura watched as his fingers gripped the sides of the white ice tray. He squeezed
tightly, wiggled his wrists a little, and squinted his eyes like he’d watched
his mother do so many times before. Nothing.

“Sweetie, if you’ll just put your hands—”

“Mother.”

Henry tried again, squeezing harder this time, his fingers turning pink then white
as the tiny muscles in his arms and hands did their five-year-old best. He screwed
his wrists in tiny circles, then crack! The first wave of victory rolled
across tops of the cubes. Laura turned back to the counter and set the lemons along
two crystal drinking glasses. When she heard the rest of the tray give way, she
turned to look at Henry, beaming.

“See?” she exclaimed. “Easy as—”

Without warning, the tray slipped from Henry’s hands, his fingers frozen mid-air
as if he were a captain conjuring plans for some historic and horrific maritime
defeat.

“Oh sweetie, it’s okay, it’s no problem,” Laura said, but
Henry didn’t hear. His eyes were transfixed on the dozen, clear cubes as they
raced across the deep blue tiles like so many ships at sea.